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harrymcc writes "Three months ago, I started using an iPad 2 (with a Zagg keyboard) as my primary computing device--the one I blog on, write articles for TIME magazine on, and use to prepare photos and other illustrations that go with my writing. I now use it about 80 percent of the time; my trusty MacBook Air has become a secondary machine."

Since no one else reads the article, I'll have to explain: it has many incorrect/missing words. It's as if it was written on a phone keyboard, with word completion, or something. "unless I have specific reason to think I’ll never a full-blown computer" "most iPads cost only a few dollars" "Or at least I was at firs–at this point"

It sounds like what the author appreciates is decent battery life and an efficient small-screen-friendly window manager.

Since no one else reads the article, I'll have to explain: it has many incorrect/missing words. It's as if it was written on a phone keyboard, with word completion, or something. "unless I have specific reason to think I’ll never a full-blown computer" "most iPads cost only a few dollars" "Or at least I was at firs–at this point"

It sounds like what the author appreciates is decent battery life and an efficient small-screen-friendly window manager.

It really was kind of surprising for an author who claims to be writing for Time magazine.

It really was kind of surprising for an author who claims to be writing for Time magazine.

Nope. Just an example of why writers need good editors (no, not the Slashdot kind...)

I've been using the Asus Transformer as my primary content generation tool for some time now. Of course the Asus has the benefit of a decent built-in keyboard, HDMI port, as well as full size USB ports (for mouse and external hard drive), but there's no reason you wouldn't be almost as productive with an iPad.

I still have a full desktop running Debian as my home machine, but I've often found it just more convenient to hook the Transformer up to mouse, hdd and screen to finish whatever I've been working on. I'll be making sure my next printer is Android compatible, then that desktop might get a bit rusty...

I don't think anyone is pushing the idea that tablets can fulfill every need of every computer user. I'm not sure what you are responding to.

You're exactly right, no one is pushing that idea. However, the fact that this is posted on Slashdot (where a disproportionate number of users are software developers, engineers, and other professions that require high powered computing) kinda implies that some of us can replace our desktops with a tablet. We know we can't and never will (unless the conditions laid out by the GP are satisfied), so this is just another one of those articles that are completely irrelevant to this demographic. What's next, links to Cosmopolitan articles?

It's not a matter of cpu, it's a matter of input devices, i cannot play stuff with a tablet that could be done with a 166mhz mac, simply because i need a keyboard and a mouse or even a wheel more responsive than the accelerometers.

So, the label hardcore is not proper IMHO, as it implies super cards and rigs, while in reality one might simply want to fire up a pc for an old assault cube.

Of course only programmers do something useful. First, they spend two hours writing bugs, then they spend three hours fixing the bugs, for a total of five hours of productivity. In between they have lunch.

It's pretty clear he didn't get anywhere productive until he bought the ZaggFolio keyboard/case. He brings it up as a central point several times.

Other than that, he states "This hasn’t been one of those experiments-for-the-sake-of-experimentation in which someone temporarily forsakes a PC for another device in order to write about the experience". Of course not. He had to justify his purchase (to himself, I suppose). Why else would he devote a blog post to "Hey look! I can write and take pictures with an iPad!"

He could just as easily written about blogging/taking pictures and emailing them to himself on a phone - because he bought an external keyboard.

This is someone that doesn't program, doesn't write long docs, is used to surfing a lot, and probably just does blog updates. A tablet is perfect.

Others with differing job needs would toss that tablet like a TV from a balcony. Except for a few rare ones, tablets can't hold much data, don't have a variety of ports, must download everything (and no DVDs, etc), and most importantly: you can't do a user-changes-battery. Yes, there are exceptions.

They have tiny screens, and by the time you add an external keyboard, it's back to the size of a netbook. As media consumption devices, they're spectacular. They're less expensive than a Macbook Air, but so is a Porsche 914.

I'd suggest that a significant number of real jobs don't require programming or the write-up of long documents. iPads are being used in hospitals and the airline industry. I could imagine a situation where hotel cleaning staff could be managed via tablets which would allow their location and cleaning times to be tracked, as well as their availability for an emergency clean-up. Or as a checklist to be used in an auto shop. Or any place where large amounts of inventory need to be managed?

Don't get me wrong: I like my laptop. But I do code and I do write long documents on a regular basis. But there are a LOT of people out there who could use a tablet device or tablet+keyboard at a much lower cost and get their jobs done just fine.

I think the master point he made was that it's actually the OS he likes. Or rather the lack of an OS to deal with. No real responsibilities to manage. Just a pure application interface. He also liked the long battery life.

I don't think he needs to justify anything to anybody. My iPad 2 hasn't even paid the power that it has consumed since I've had it, let alone itself. I bought it because I have a thing for capacitive multitouch touchscreens, especially if they have a GPS too, and once the iPad 3 is out, this one will be sold at half the price, which is what I do to all my previous-generation Apple hardware as there's always someone around willing t buy my stuff when I upgrade. I have an iPhone 4S as well, but the iPad is

Obviously typing blog posts on an iPad doesn't work as well as the submitter wants to make himself believe.

Maybe he should stick to Twitter?

Seriously, I won an iPad over a year ago. The iPad sits on the nightstand by my bed - 95% of the time, I reach under the bed to retrieve my 13" laptop to do anything, including watching streaming media. The (8 and 10 year old) kids prefer the iPad to an eee Netbook, but only because it's swipey swipey fun to use and seems to be better at grabbing marginal WiFi connections than the Netbook is. I think if the kids had to choose between having a Netbook of their own, or 50/50 sharing the (twice as expensive) iPad, they'd probably go for having their own Netbook. Especially when they want to access Flash enabled websites.

I'm an amateur photographer. I upgraded from a Core 2 Duo laptop which was working GREAT (and I still use) to a Core i5... gasp! DESKTOP! Because I like having a 27" monitor and I use the 8GB of RAM and all 4 cores of my CPU to process photos. And of course, USB ports and SD card readers are nice too.

So, thanks for your suggestions iPad fanboys. I'll stick with my desktop machine for the next few years.

Don't think iPads and the like are supposed to replace desktops. But they might replace laptops for some use cases. I have to admit, I pretty much just use my big grunty desktop (serious work, gaming) or my iPad (quick web browsing, email, watching Youtube etc.) now. The laptop is gathering dust. I used to take it when I went on trips but now I just throw the iPad in instead - it's lighter and has better battery life, and it does all I need it to when travelling (basically email, Skype, web) and a few things the laptop doesn't (GPS + maps).

Having said that I would never use a tablet as my PRIMARY machine (the premise of this thread). Nor would most Slashdotters. A proper PC will always have its place for coding, gaming and heavy duty processing of media (video, audio and photos - as you will no doubt agree). But for the average Joe who just uses their computer to check a few websites and send an email or two, a tablet fits their needs nicely.

I am beginning to find it hard to justify having a desktop at all. Right now I have a mid-2011 iMac for desktop which I am considering selling and replacing with a Thunderbolt Display at home, using a Macbook Pro as a transportable home computer (with the Thunderbolt Display serving as its dock), and the iPad as a netbook, because most of the use that I have for a laptop these days is to access remote servers, browse the web, and read E-mail, all things that can be done perfectly well using an iPad with a

You clearly haven't read the article. The authory states his iPad2 has a neat photo editor. It can resize your pictures and even make them black & white. What else would somebody ever want to do with photographs?Clearly the iPad2 can replace your hugely overspecced computer. It may be a bit more expensive than your computer, but you can use it everywhere (provided no sunlight is reflecting in the glossy screen).

I'm an amateur photographer. I upgraded from a Core 2 Duo laptop which was working GREAT (and I still use) to a Core i5... gasp! DESKTOP! Because I like having a 27" monitor and I use the 8GB of RAM and all 4 cores of my CPU to process photos. And of course, USB ports and SD card readers are nice too.

So, thanks for your suggestions iPad fanboys. I'll stick with my desktop machine for the next few years.

Sorry to break this to you, but he's the 1%.:)

I still have a desktop for gaming. The receptionists and bookkeepers get desktops because they are cheaper and in the case of accounting, does not permit them to easily take data out of the building like a laptop does. The CAD/GIS team use high end desktops because you simply cant get good graphics performance out of laptop, especially onto 2 x 30" monitors, even with SSD's (the old GIS desktops used 10K RPM Raptors). Developers constantly complain their lap

an ipad to dump photos to is a pain in the ass. No thanks. I'd rather use my image tank to copy the cards while I continue shooting, and then hook up firewire to see them later in the hotel room at decent speed.

the only photographers I know that use an ipad in the way you speak is the amateurs that are playing around. I dont have time to wait a week for the ipad to copy all the photos off of a 32 gig card. And bog whoop it holds 2 cards. I fill a 500gig

Any serious photographer who's doing work for magazines and newspapers will need/want a quad core with 8Gb of RAM. Seriously, if you've spent more than 5 minutes cleaning and processing RAWs for a professional shoot you'll want the fastest machine with the most memory you can get your hands on.

It almost qualifies as a twitter entry. Meanwhile some of us have real work to do which we need our PC's for. We aren't all hipster freelance writers that have nothing to do with our day that can't be done on an iPad while sitting in Starbucks taking up space that should be reserved for paying customers.

But as tablets become able to do "real work", fewer people will demand PCs. Some previous articles posted to Slashdot predict the "death of the PC", and pretty much only people who make apps for a living will have PCs. Where's the economy of scale in a PC industry dedicated to supporting only tablet app developers?

Why? Given a laptop that can do what you want and a tablet, why do you assume that people would always pick the tablet?

First, because they find the tablet operating system easier to learn and easier to keep free of fake antivirus and rootkits than Windows. People have already switched from PC gaming to console gaming for exactly this reason. Second, because laptops can't "do what [some people] want" because the author of a tablet application has the privilege not to make a Windows version. This has already happened with my bank: Chase's check deposit application is available only for iOS through the App Store or for Android

Is there a full software development environment that is iOS- or Android-based?

The argument that every maker of a cryptographically locked down computing platform has used is that few people even need "a full software development environment". Professional software developers are among those who demand PCs, but far fewer people are professional software developers compared to users of computing devices in general. Thus "fewer people", not "no people".

And how do tables *become* better? Is there a full software development environment that is iOS- or Android-based?

Development is the number one exclusion when it comes to tasks which can be done on tablets. But development is a small niche. There can certainly be a world with a fraction of the numbers of PCs in it, even if not a single developer ever gives up their PC.

Pretty much this.If you're a web developer, like me (or any kind of developer for that matter), you kinda need to be able to do things that just aren't feasible on a tablet.Like run a test server, install and test on multiple browsers, run virtual machines to test on other OSes (like the mobile OSes for example. God bless Androidx86) and, you know, running at more than 1024x768 isn't such a bad thing either.

You know, all the little things we take for granted on a desktop disappears when you use a tablet.

Seriously. The OP may want to climb into comments and explain his point. What takes more time to do? What takes less (if anything)? How would it be if you didn't have the extra keyboard? That seems to me to make it a de facto laptop, so you're not really using a "tablet as your primary computer." Or do you not use the keyboard much? Is it more or less convenient to have a separate keyboard? Etc., etc., etc.

costs on the order of a thousand dollars
throws away 30 years of office app development
can't play a dvd
can't store more than a couple dozen gigs
doesn't allow installation of different OSs
runs anemic, "power-friendly" processors
can't multitask well
all of the above

Don't care. Don't use Office or any competitor. Do not need it, do not want it.

> can't play a dvd

Don't need it to. My iPad has 32gig of storage on it. Right now I have seasons 3 and 4 of the Venture Brothers on there, as well as a few movies for my kids. If that's not enough I can stream stuff from my media server, or from Netflix.

DVDs are a dead storage medium.

> can't store more than a couple dozen gigs

So what? It's not a file server. It's a tablet. It has more than enough storage to do the job. And as mentioned before, streaming options are also available.

> doesn't allow installation of different OSs

So what? What if you don't care about installing different OSes?

> runs anemic, "power-friendly" processors

Powerful enough to run Lego Harry Potter, watch a movie, or anything else I want to do with it. What are you prevented from doing?

> can't multitask well

Same question: what are you prevented from doing? It polls for new emails in the background, if I get an IM I'm notified, etc., etc. What's your bitch?

It's also a misleading summary. The guy isn't truly using a tablet as his primary computer, because the first thing he does is get a Bluetooth keyboard. What he likes is super-long battery life, built-in mobile broadband, and a clean user interface. Everything tablet-specific -- the touchscreen, the apps, the screen size -- he describes as worse than a laptop.

I missed the tablet craze when I was working out of coffee shops. Most of my time was spent in a text editor or in MATLAB.

There were certainly days where I would have killed for more battery life, but I'm skeptical that I could have worked out a workflow when I was doing MATLAB work. If I weren't fighting with 100 other people for the same WiFi signal, I could have remoted in to a real machine - but that was not always possible even from a reasonable laptop.

I this not what the buzzword pushers have wanted to sell ever since they started talking about "the cloud"?

Hell, the big boys never wanted people to leave the mainframe world. We just found ourselves in a world where lugging the storage media, and later the whole computer, around was more effective then trying to dial in to work. Now that connectivity have caught up with that, the trends are reversing. Much to the chagrin of the nerds that enjoy "modable" computers.

That's what I don't get either. I understand a desktop isn't mobile and a smartphone is too small, so there's room for something in the middle which is the best of both worlds. But why on earth would you choose a tablet over a notebook?

To me, a notebook seems just as portable as a tablet, with the added benefit of a more powerful system.

What is the benefit of using something "more powerful" than a console for development? I've yet to meet a graphical IDE that actually works better than vim

Stop this. Forever. If you need to design GUIs in your software development, a console only approach is undoubtedly inferior. Not using an unquestionably inferior development environment would be a benefit. There are loads of other examples. For some development, absolutely, a console meets the needs perfectly. But different requirements often require different solutions. If you don't know that as a developer, I do not want to use your software.

I'm halfway convinced you are engaging in some kind of elaborate troll or performance art. You are the one who is attaching automated testing (and tagging based on the results) to a revision control system; I am not. I have professionally developed software in a (useful) business setting, and I have managed a ten-person software development group. I saw the increase in code quality -- and more predictable release schedules -- when I migrated that group from Subversion to Git+Gerrit (which imposes mandato

Make no mistake I have to be connected to commit, all compilation and testing is done on the server as a pre-commit hook.

Basically just before svn accepts the commit as an actual revision it does a compile. Successful compiles are tagged as good revisions and unsuccessful ones are tagged are tagged as "bad" revisions. Good ones get auto-deployed to the dev server, bad ones don't. Reports get emailed to the commiter.

I don't understand the comparison - how is a cellular data connection any more essential to the ipad than the netbook?

A netbook lets me run any application I want while offline, regardless of whether or not the manufacturer of the netbook has approved the application. In order to run any application that Apple has not approved on an iPad, I would need to run the application on a remote server and then install SSH or VNC to use it.

A tablet IS a PC - it just has a different pointing device, and is optimized for battery life rather than raw power. Actually, I can't even say that because netbooks make the same tradeoff, but include a different pointing device and attached keyboard.

Eh, I was the same way. I shook my head and thought it was silly... that I'd rather get a cheap 12" or 14" laptop.

Then one day, on a lark, I got some cash and was in the Apple store. I'd been using an iPad at work a lot and figured "what the heck, why not."

It's nice... not "laptop" nice but it's good. I just use it when chilling on the couch or away from my desk. No hinge/parts means it can take more of a beating. I can do my quick browsing/emailing/etc on a larger screen than my mobile phone (less strain on the eyes). Really, for the most part it's just small stuff like that.

Biggest advantage is the battery lasts for flippin' ever. This was a life saver when I was without power for a week due to the recent snow storm. Charge it at work, download some shows, and I can watch TV all evening and only lose like 10%-15% battery life. It's also nice on trips, less of a hassle to take one out and start reading / watching / playing something in the confined seats of a plain/train/etc.

It's nice for some things but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. If you want a tablet, the Nook and such are probably easier to swallow with their cheaper price.

I've tried pretty much the same thing [stream0.org] using an Asus Transformer TF101. It has been less than a success.

Basically the tablet is great for email, which fortunately I write a lot of, but rubbish for office productivity. Word processing, spreadsheets and presentations are all difficult to create and edit with the installed Polaris Office. The original article above mentions Hootsuite. I use Hootsuite for managing my social networks. On an Android tablet, the experience is less than stellar. The Hootsuite app is clearly built for a mobile phone. In a web browser though, Hootsuite is brilliant. Sadly, web browsers on an Android tablet are largely crap at dealing with Javascript. And I've tried pretty much all of them. I need at least 4 (standard Google Android browser, Opera, Dolphin HD and Firefox Beta) to ensure that I will be able to load and interact with all websites I come across. Google Docs also fails in a web browser, and the app is once again mobile phone focussed.

The battery life of the Transformer is brilliant, especially with the dockable keyboard, which makes writing anything of length bearable.

A while ago I installed Ubuntu 11.10 [stream0.org] as a dual boot operating system. I now use this OS much, much more on the Transformer. It's not perfect and a few things don't work, such as the mini-HDMI out, but when it comes to browsing and office productivity, I find this much more useful.

When youd add a physical keyboard to it, it's just not a tablet any more, functionally. It's either a two-piece notepad, or if the keyboard is attached, even with just a cover, it's a notepad period.

The form factor changes. I expect tablets to be just one piece. A salient feature of a tablet is the LACK of a keyboard.

But if he was saying that adapting his tablet for everyday uses onle required adding a keyboard, well, doh. This is news for nerds? Not for a few years.

By TFA measure, my X41t is a tablet. Oh, sure, it needs a stylus and comes with a keyboard, and most of the logic is in the 'keyboard part', but it's touch sensitive (just the touch of the stylus, I know), has an onscreen keyboard etc. and folds over so it's just screen. and the stylus.

In today's world, it isn't what most people think they mean by 'tablet'. Adding a keyboard muddies this even more.

And it wasn't pretty [arstechnica.com] Somebody points out that a tablet can only be a good primary computer if one's primary work is non-computer intensive, like an editor with a light workload; use-iPad-for-everything people get defensive about the technical rigor of their work, and computational significance of their needs; comments section gets shut down due to hurt feelings.

Just some background, I am an Oracle DBA who is oncall every second week. I used to carry around my laptop, power cable and iphone while I was on call. I managed to get my hands on an iPad and used it for light reading, email, etc. I tried to use it while on call but it was too painful. SSH on the thing is nice if your in a bind, but you don't want to be using it for an extended period of time. Just think about trying to use vi, yikes.

Anyways, I picked up a Zaggmate keyboard for it. I now carry it primarily while I am on call, much easier to tote around than my 17" laptop. Has a better battery life and 3g built in. I don't have to worry about draining my phone at the same time as my laptop.

However, if I am traveling I take both the laptop and ipad. While the ipad is good for short periods of work, it is still painful for long periods. And its also not suited for alot of tasks, which you don't realize until you actually try to do them.

So I would agree to a point that 80% of work can be done on an iPad but its that other 20% that kills you. I could also walk to work but that would take an extra 2 hours each way than using my car.

The macbook air is light, small, easy to carry around. I am not sure why you would use an iPad over it. I've heard quite a few people say the opposite as the guy in the article. Once they bought air's they barely used their ipads. Once you factor in the cost of the keyboard, ipad, your almost at an air anyways.

My 13 year old daughter got an iDevice for her birthday (an iPod Touch -- seems like an iPhone without the sim card to me).She's had a great time buying idiotic wallpaper "apps" (branded / licensed from her favorite TV shows), and silly games like Angry Birds, etc.Also getting Email and wasting time on facebook (and of course buying a playing music).

This prompted the Dad speech: "when I was your age, we had C-64's. They plugged into the TV and you could write your OWN games".

Her eyes lit up. "I want to do that" she said.... she had a couple of amusing ideas for angry birds knock offs.Of course, starting from 0 might take a while to get there.

It started me thinking. The C-64 could suck you into programming real easy. Because with a few one liners you could change the screen color, make some noises, etc etc. It peeled back the curtain a little, and let you see how the thing you just bought worked, and how you could make it do neat things, and it didn't take a lot of effort to get there.

How in the hell could I even start my daughter down this path today?

I guess we'd have to download the Apple developer tools, XCode, get some sort of iDevice development license, and... damn I don't know I guess some sort of iPhone simulator or something to run on the computer to act like it was an actual iDevice (since there's no way in hell you're getting your code onto one outside of the app store).

If she managed to entertain some enthusiasm through that ridiculous process, then her eyes would glass over as I began to explain how compiling works, header files, etc, etc, etc.

The greatest thing about computers is that they are creativity machines. You can use them to make just about anything. But these iDevice walled gardens are bullshit mini-televisions or game consoles. You can't DO anything other than consume, or produce approved content: pictures, emails, blog posts, maybe audio.

I'm disappointed by that. They could be so much more, for a new generation.

Download Corona SDK. She can use the trial version to create iOS apps in just a few lines of code, and only needs to pay the $199 Corona fee and $99 Apple iOS Developer Program fee if she wishes to publish her iOS apps to Apple's App Store.